Sealing architecture for side doors in automotive vehicles can require a pair of spaced apart elastomeric seals that seal the side door against the body of the vehicle. The closure of such side doors traps a volume of air between the two spaced apart elastomeric seals, causing an excess amount of resistance when a person is trying to close the side door. This resistance is commonly referred to as “air bind”. This excess air bind increases the amount of closing force required to fully close a side door on an automotive vehicle, resulting in customer dissatisfaction.
A snorkel-shaped grommet utilized in an electrical cable running guide is disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. No. D401,907, granted to Peter Gazerro on Dec. 1, 1998. A ventilator for a railroad car is formed to include a wire cloth cover to exclude flying bodies from entering the ventilator, while allowing the passage of air to be carried through the down cast ducts into the interior of the railroad car, in U.S. Pat. No. 127,559, granted on Jun. 4, 1872, to James Henry Bruce. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,382,889, issued on May 14, 1968, to Walter Heinz, a sealing means is provided with an integral central web and a shield portion, although the sealing means does not appear to be positioned on the door edge.
A grommet for a wire harness extending through two panels is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,017 issued to Hiroyuki Nakajima, et al on Sep. 5, 1995, that is provided with a second member having a panel-installing portion and a cylindrical wire portion bent in an L-shaped configuration. A rib is formed on the peripheral surface of the wire portion. While in U.S. Pat. No. 6,682,119, granted on Jan. 27, 2004, to Eric Droulez, a grommet is provided for a soundproof partition to permit communication between two different regions on opposing sides of the soundproof partition. In none of the above-identified prior art documents is a grommet disclosed for use in an automotive door to relieve the air pressure generated between a pair of spaced seals to allow the door to close with less effort.
It would be desirable to provide a device cooperable with the side door of an automotive vehicle to permit the release of air pressure generated between two spaced seals on the side door when the door is closed.